IPC House: ambitious LEED gold build

A landmark commercial building in one of Dublin 4’s premier addresses, IPC House on Shelbourne Road has 120,000 square feet, six floors, a basement car park and a terrace. As any architect or planner knows, there is much more to roofing and building enveloping than simply keeping the elements out. These days sustainability and energy management are key considerations. With limited available roof space and the design stipulation for renewable energy to achieve NZEB and LEED Gold targets, the IPC House project came with some challenges.

Achieving LEED gold

Green roofing had been considered in the original design. However, given the need to maximise the roof space for renewable energy targets – the IPC House is a Near Zero Energy Building (NZEB), meaning it needs to generate a certain amount of renewable energy to be used during its lifetime – a cool roof combined with solar panels provided a better design solution.

Under LEED version 4.1 (2019), the 3-year solar reflectance index value for low-sloped cool roofs has to exceed 64. We achieved the necessary sustainability and energy targets by proposing a bitumen waterproofing system combined with a white reflective cap sheet finish. RKD Architects planned to include PV panels on the roof space, and using bitumen roofing and the right cap sheet meant that those panels could not only be installed on the roof, but that their benefit would be maximised.

The SOPREMA bituminous warm roof system with a tapered insulation design was installed by Crown Roofing for main contractor mac-group.

Roof types used for IPC House

There were two specifications, and both were used in the project. Specification one consisted of the following build-up:

Specification two also consisted of a concrete deck substrate, ELASTOCOL 500 primer, SOPRAVAP Alu Activa 2 vapour barrier, Bitumen Bonded with Alu Activa 2 as insulation fixing, and SOPRATHERM T insulation (in a tapered scheme), but the build-up was completed by:

Extensive experience in NZEB buildings

SOPREMA has been building for the future for many years now. We have been involved in the design and installation of high-performance roofing for several NZEB and LEED buildings. Among the commercial buildings we’ve provided materials and design work for are LEED Platinum Certified 40 Molesworth Street, the Dublin Airport Authority Head Office and Grant Thornton Head Office on City Quay.

If you have a building enveloping design challenge, talk to us today about our range of sustainable solutions. We are confident of always finding design solutions and materials that meet even the most stringent demands for quality and sustainability.